Mayor says money will go on 'investment' for 'faster journeys' or you can just pedal harder

TUBE and bus fares are to be pushed up by 4.2% in the New Year, it was announced today, taking a zone 1 trip on London Underground to £2.10 and a single bus fare to £1.40.

Those rises were broadly expected as London Mayor Boris Johnson had already said he would raise fares by 1% more than the inflation rate.

Johnson called the Transport for London fare increase "balanced", but even he must have nearly fallen off his bike when he first came up with the idea of doubling the charges for the cycle hire scheme.

The rate for hiring a bike for the day is to go up £1 to £2, while the weekly charge climbs from £5 to £10. Yearly membership for the scheme shoots up from £45 to £90.

Johnson argued that the fare rises would make more money available for investment in London's transport network.

"This fares package is hugely important to our millions of passengers," he said.

"Before the end of the year I will spell out further investment on the transport network that will help us to provide faster, more frequent and reliable journeys."

Commenting on the fare rises, Labour's Val Shawcross, the party's spokesperson for transport in London, pointed out that TfL actually had more fare income than originally envisaged in its budget.

"TfL again raised more fare income than they intended to," she said.

"I think they could have kept it to [the inflation rate] and didn't need that extra 1%."